This invention is an improvement of prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,502,070 dated Mar. 24, 1970, in providing a surgeon guide indicia for accurately suturing an excision, the prior invention not having this feature. The result is accurate alignment of the side edges of the excised skin in the suturing process.
In connection with certain biopsies, especially in regard to a skin biopsy, it is desirable to excise a `boat-shaped` or navicular section including both some healthy tissue as well as the lesion which is to be microscopically diagnosed. As used herein, the words `boat-shaped` and `navicular` have reference to a boat of the general character of a canoe or kayak in which the stern has the same shaping as the bow. An excision of this character leaves a remaining defect which may be accurately closed in a straight line and consequently a fine line straight scar results. Such a scar is preferable, as it can be made to fall in a natural skin line, such as a crease, wrinkle, and the like and thus be thereafter substantially unnoticeable. Further, straight scars spread less and are more apt to retain their hairline width than will curvate or puckered scars.
Difficulty has been experienced heretofore in making a biopsy excision, the result of which would be a straight hairline scar. Frequently the excision would not be of a proper boat shape, but, perhaps due to the elasticity of the skin, one side of the defect to be closed would be far more accurate than the other or one end of the defect would be far rounder than the other, so that repair of the defect would result in a scar curvature, puckered, or some other shape that would thereafter be noticeable.